Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Pie-crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
In a large bowl, combine the sifted flour and salt.
Add the melted beef suet, lard, and butter to the flour mixture.
Dissolve half of a Fleischmann's Yeast Cake in a little warm water and add it to the mixture.
Rub the shortening into the flour until well combined.
Gradually add tepid water until a dough forms.
Rise and roll
Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place overnight.
In the morning, roll out the dough for your pies.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Beef + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,847 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Flour + beeftop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,677 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Flour
- Forms the main structure of the dough once mixed with liquid.
- Beef suet
- Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and flaky.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour that helps the crust brown and taste rich.
- Yeast cake
- Produces gas during the overnight rise, lightening the dough.
The step that matters
Overnight rise in a warm place. Yeast needs warmth and time to produce gas; if the dough is too cold it will rise little, and if too warm for too long it can over-ferment and weaken its structure.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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